Veil (33 page)

“You got it,” Ken replied. He wasn’t about to
question it. It wasn’t his place to. He began to walk toward the
examining bed, where Brock was already lying, but Hunter grabbed
him gently by the arm.

“Thank you for this,” he gushed in a whisper
and motioned in Brock’s direction with a tilt of his head. Ken
smiled and nodded. He then took his place by Brock to begin the
procedure. Hunter took his place on the opposite side of Brock and
sat in a chair positioned by the examining bed, parallel with
Brock’s head.

Hunter smiled at Brock, whose contorted body
was covered by a sheet. “Here we go bud, hope you’re ready.
Everything will be fine. Trust me and relax,” he assured his
friend.

Brock purposely blinked once, which indicated
“yes.”

“We’re ready,” Hunter informed Ken.

Ken did a final check of the life-support
equipment, to which they’d hooked up Brock, and verified everything
was operating normally.

“Everything looks good. Here we go,” Ken
informed them. He stepped closer to Brock and pushed a button on
the side of the collar-like Veil prototype that wrapped around the
back of Brock’s neck. Ken then supported Brock’s head; he kept it
raised off the bed enough to prevent it from obstructing the
device’s operation. The Veil beeped and a sheet of
electrode-infused silicone slowly extended from the base of the
unit. The silicone snaked up the back of Brock’s neck, ascended
along his scalp, and completely covered his head
,
until it came to a stop at his hairline. A row of
small lights across the base of the unit lit up sequentially as
Brock’s neuroelectricity, his Witness, was downloaded into the
prototype Veil collar.

When the last light was lit, the Veil beeped
again and the silicone sheet contracted back into the base. The
lights at the base of the unit remained lit, which indicated
Brock’s neuroelectricity was stored inside the device. Brock
remained unconscious; they supplied him with enough artificial
neuroelectricity to keep him alive but not enough for him to gain
consciousness.

Ken nodded at Hunter, who removed the Veil
from Brock and placed the collar on his own neck. Ken gently
lowered Brock’s head, until it came to rest on the pillow. At the
same time, Hunter pushed the button on the side of the collar and
the unit beeped. After the silicone sheeting covered Hunter’s head,
the lights in the base went out sequentially, but in reverse, as
Brock’s Witness was uploaded onto Hunter’s brain. When the last
light went out, the Veil beeped yet again and the silicone
contracted back into its base.

“It’s done,” Ken announced. Brock was still
unconscious
,
and his vital signs were
normal.

Hunter didn’t feel anything. He was expecting
to feel some kind of … well … something. A buzz, a
shock
,
or some kind of static electricity
in his hair. He wasn’t quite sure what he thought he’d feel, but he
was expecting to feel
something
.

“That’s it?” he asked Ken. His body was
stiff
,
and he looked straight ahead. For
some reason, he was afraid to move. He noticed he was
whispering
,
too. He wasn’t sure if he was
whispering to keep from disturbing Brock, which was ridiculous, or
because he’d never experienced having someone else all up inside
his head, which kind of creeped him out. It was like he could sense
a ghost sitting right next to him, staring at him, but as long as
he didn’t look over at the ghost, it wasn’t really there.

“That’s it,” Ken assured him.

“Ok. This is it. Here we go bud,” Hunter said
out loud, that time in less of a whisper. He put his hands on his
knees, took a deep breath, exhaled
,
and
removed the Veil.

Hunter stood, placed the collar on the chair,
and faced Brock. He put a hand on top of Brock’s head and rubbed it
gently; he bent over and spoke to his unconscious friend. He
whispered again, but not in fear of rousing him. He whispered
because what he had to say begged to be whispered.

“I love you, Brock. You are my best friend.
You are my brother,” he professed, as tears trickled and then
streamed down his cheeks. His entire chin quivered and his voice,
still at a whisper, lowered an octave. “You are the most important
person in my life. You always have been. I’d be nothing without
you. You’re my moral compass. You’re my conscience. And now that
you can actually hear it, you’ll find out for yourself how you’ve
become like a voice inside my head that guides me. I love you so
much.” He leaned down and kissed Brock’s forehead. Before that
moment, Hunter had never once, not even casually, told his friend
he loved him. He said it one more time. “I love you.”

Hunter then left the lab without saying
another word.

The first thing he heard was snapping.
Someone repeatedly snapped fingers next to his head in an attempt
to wake him. Or to annoy him. As he opened his eyes and regained
consciousness, his head moved back and forth, and he heard Hunter’s
voice.

“He’s waking up. How quickly do we have to
start the upload?”

“We can start it whenever we want. But, I
figured he’d want to be fully awake before we started
,
so I increased his artificial neuroelectricity,”
Brock heard Ken say. “Besides, he’ll need some dual
neuroelectricity running through him during the upload since we’ve
chosen to do it this way. In realtime I mean. Otherwise, he
wouldn’t be actively aware of what he’s experiencing through you.
He wouldn’t be himself; he would be
you
the whole time and
wouldn’t resume being himself at all until after the upload was
complete. If any of that makes sense.”

“Makes sense, doing it in realtime like this
is completely different; I know that. I understand how it works. At
least I hope I do by now. The usual way, the Veiltime way, the
process happens very quickly and the person gets left more with an
impression or memory of the experience. They don’t experience
everything second-by-second; they’re left with a memory of what it
was like to be the other person. Also, doing it this way, Brock
still has to be aware enough to experience what happens during the
upload.”

“Exactly,” Ken nodded.

“Brock? Bud, you awake? Are you in there?”
Hunter asked and leaned closer to Brock’s ear. “Is there anybody in
thereeeeeeeee?”

Brock was irked. He moaned and blinked once,
very pronounced.

Hunter laughed and looked at Ken. “Ok I think
we’re about ready to start the upload. Let’s sit him upright.”

Ken cranked the lever at the end of the bed
to raise Brock’s head and torso. Hunter steadied Brock until he was
sitting mostly upright but still leaned back slightly.

“You ready bud?” Hunter asked.

Brock blinked once, which signaled he was
ready. That time Brock was excited, not annoyed. Hunter took the
Veil collar from the chair where he placed it earlier, sat down to
face Brock, and wrapped the collar around the back of his own neck.
He reached into his pocket and removed a small notebook and pocket
watch. He pressed the button on the side of the collar. After he
detected the two beeps, which signaled Brock’s Witness had been
downloaded from him, he removed the collar and attached it to
Brock’s neck.

Hunter looked at Brock, smiled, and once
again pressed the button on the side of the collar. He supported
Brock’s head so the collar could do its job. A little under a
minute later, after the sheet of silicone snaked its way over
Brock’s head, the Veil beeped to indicate Brock’s Witness would
begin to upload back onto his brain. Hunter slowly and gently
lowered his friend’s head; Brock closed his eyes and braced
himself.

Brock immediately got chills and goose bumps
all over his body. The darkness of his closed eyes tunneled with a
stream of blurred colors and was quickly replaced by a nearly
perfect reproduction of Hunter’s vision, looking straight ahead,
approximately twelve hours earlier. It took a moment to adjust but
as the sound of Hunter’s thoughts crystallized in Brock’s
mind
,
he found it easier and easier to
differentiate himself from Hunter. It was a weird sensation but he
found it to be kind of neat. It was like experiencing a living,
breathing movie inside his head. Or the impression of a movie. Not
as clear as reality but so clear it looked, felt, sounded, and
smelled real. It seemed completely real.

He chuckled when Hunter thought about how it
was ridiculous for him to whisper since Brock was unconscious. And
then came the thought about the ghosts; that was something he could
imagine Hunter saying. It was all so surreal … but real at the same
time. And wow, the sound of Hunter’s thoughts. The voice. The voice
wasn’t something he was hearing with his ears but rather was like
the voice in Brock’s own head when he had thoughts. It was so
interesting to experience. That was the only word he could think to
describe it: interesting.

At the beginning of the Veil, as Hunter rose
and walked to him, Brock could sense the movement in himself.
Although Brock knew he wasn’t actually moving
,
somehow he could feel the motion throughout his own
body. Even though his mind knew better, he could still sense the
movement. The feeling of movement. Movements he hadn’t felt in so
many years. It gave him chills again.

It was unsettling to see himself through
someone else’s eyes. To actually see himself, his own form, the
outline of his body through the sheet. It was disturbing, but not
because he thought his body was ugly or damaged. It was disturbing
because that were probably how people would experience it when they
died and left their body but then looked back on themselves. It
made Brock shudder. Not the chills but a downright shudder. At
least, as much as his broken body could shudder.

He was snapped out of that weird feeling when
he heard Hunter say that he loved him; he heard all those words
that Hunter spoke directly to him right before he left the lab.
More than hearing Hunter’s words, he felt them all. Brock felt the
meaning behind Hunter’s words and knew instantly that was the
reason Hunter delivered them. As Hunter spoke, he felt each word
echo in his mind in the form of Hunter’s voice. Each word was
accompanied by such a strong feeling of love that it filled Brock
up.

It was Hunter’s love he was
feeling
.
He was actually feeling Hunter’s
love for him inside of himself. He could feel all of it; he could
feel all its strength and truth and honesty and innocence. He could
feel how it was deep and old, how it was unwavering and
unconditional. He felt Hunter’s love for him so powerfully it
filled Brock up until tears streamed down his cheeks as he lay
there. He then experienced Hunter bend down and kiss his forehead
approximately twelve hours earlier.

In the lab, seated next to Brock and gauging
his reactions, Hunter struggled not to weep as he watched Brock
experience exactly what he hoped he would. Hunter lovingly placed
his hand on Brock’s forehead to comfort him. He did so at precisely
the same moment that Brock was experiencing him kiss his forehead
inside the Veil. The compounding emotions of both moments, of both
experiences, became too much for Brock. He opened his eyes and
looked at his friend while tears poured from both men; Hunter lost
his struggle not to weep. Brock released a set of loud sobs. He
produced deep, guttural, primal bellows as he experienced
firsthand, and in realtime, his friend’s love for him.

“Shhh…” Hunter soothed him. He caressed
Brock’s forehead and cheek with the back of his hand. “Close your
eyes, bud,” he whispered through a quivering chin. Brock closed his
eyes again
.
Hunter noticed that Ken, who
sat at a station across the lab, was crying along with them.